He was born in 543 in Ray (today, a southern suburb of Tehran, Iran), and died in 606 in Herat (a majority Persian/Tajik city in today’s Afghanistan). Today Ray has been absorbed into the Greater Tehran metropolitan area, Iran, and is the oldest existing city in the province. He was a Shafi’i Ash’ari and is considered as one of the authorities of the Shafi’i Madhab. He was known for his very harsh stances against the Rafidah Twelver Shias. He himself has been heavily criticised by non-Ash’aris, especially for his Kalam. His opponents claim that he made Tawbah from certain beliefs such as his approach to Kalam (however he is considered as an Imam of the Ash’aris nonetheless, by supporters and opponents of his creed):

Al-Razi had written over a hundred works on a wide variety of subjects the most famous being Tafsir Al-Kabir (“The Large Commentary”), also known as Mafatih Al-Ghayb (“Keys to the Unknown”). It is among the greatest commentaries of Qur’an in Islam, in twelve to thirty volumes depending on the edition, he spent the last fifteen years of his life working on it and did not finish it. The commentator Abu Hayyan criticized its prolixity in acerbic terms. It is not unusual for contemporary works to use it as a reference. He also wrote on medicines, physics, astronomy, literature, history and law. Al-Razi could debate and preach in both Arabic and Persian.

People who hail from Ray are known as “Razis”, one of the most influential and greatest scholars of the Salaf Al-Saleh emerged from Ray, including but not limited to (unlike Fakhr Al-Din, who was of Arab descent, the following scholars who are all of Persian descent):

– Abu Hatim, Muhammad ibn Idris Ibn MEHRAN al-Razi (811–890), non-Ash’ari, Salafi-Athari. An ethnic Persian and notable hadith scholar born in Ray. Among his students were Abu Dawood Al-Sijistani (todays Sistan/Iran) and Al-Nasa’i (who hails from Nasa, a Persian Khorassani town). He is the father of Ibn Abi Hatim.

– Abu Muhammad Abd ar-Rahman Ibn Abu Hatim Muhammad Al-Razi (854-938), non-Ash’ari, Salafi-Athari. Son of the famous Abu Hatim. Ibn Hatim, an was an ethnic Persian and is considered the last major figure of Sunni scholarship in the city of Ray (Ray, respectively Tehran’s entire Sunni population has been forced to Shi’ism after the Twelver Shia Safavi dynasty took control over Iran. Historians recorded massacres and executions against the Sunni population, in particular the Sunni scholars. Whoever resisted Shiism was killed and thus many accepted Shiism by force.)